As the nation struggles with the COVID-19 pandemic, a double-edged educational crisis has emerged: a surge in high school dropout rates and a precipitous decline in community college enrollment.

The details are all too plain — the nation’s public schools lost more than 1.1 million students last year, or 2 percent, versus an anticipated decline of less than 0.4 percent before the pandemic. Community colleges enrolled 476,000 fewer students last year than the year before, an 11.4 percent drop.

As learning moved online, adolescents lost the support and stimulation of their peers, the discipline of extracurricular activities and, often, adult supervision to keep them on track. Many also had to work or care for younger siblings or ailing relatives. Prospective community college students declined to enroll because of pandemic-induced financial limitations, new family responsibilities and concerns about online courses, among other factors.

The pandemic pushed these problems to the forefront, but for decades, high schools have ill-served students with an academic model that is inflexible and often irrelevant, while community colleges have not sufficiently addressed the needs of the first-generation students from low-income families who often make up the bulk of their enrollment.

A fundamental problem — the structural flaw that brings these crises together — is the unnatural divide between secondary and postsecondary education. Americans think of K-12 and the years afterward as two distinct and separate parts when they should be viewed as a continuum. Reimagining this system means that colleges must reach down, and high schools must reach up. Together, they need to ensure that students are learning skills and earning credentials that will prepare them for careers and success in today’s economy.

What does such a connection look like? Some promising examples come from Linked Learning, an education approach that works to transform the high school experience through rigorous technical training, work-based learning, and robust student supports. It does so by disrupting tracking, a traditional practice that has deepened disparities by forcing students to choose between pursuing academic, pre-college studies, and training for a trade.

In one large California district served by Linked Learning, Long Beach College Promise links high schools with public colleges. The partnership provides clear learning pathways for students, starting in their freshman year, with high-quality college and career preparation. All students at Long Beach Community College get free tuition their first year, and all Promise students meeting college prep requirements are guaranteed admission to California State University Long Beach. The schools reach out to students and families starting in sixth grade and continue the support through the transition to high school and college.

Read the full article about the community college education pipeline by Chauncy Lennon and Anne Stanton at The 74.